
Proto
How One Ancient Language Went Global
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Narrated by:
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Emma Spurgin-Hussey
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By:
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Laura Spinney
About this listen
Bloomsbury presents Proto by Laura Spinney, read by Emma Spurgin-Hussey
The enthralling story of how today’s largest language family, spoken by nearly half the world’s population, descended from one ancient dialect.
Daughter. Duhitár-. Dustr. Dukte. Listen to these English, Sanskrit, Armenian and Lithuanian words, all meaning the same thing, and you hear echoes of one of history’s most unlikely journeys. All four languages—along with hundreds of others, from French and Gaelic, to Persian and Polish—trace their origins to an ancient tongue spoken as the last ice age receded. This language, which we call Proto-Indo-European, was born between Europe and Asia and exploded out of its cradle, fragmenting as it spread east and west. Its last speaker died thousands of years ago, yet Proto-Indo-European lives on in its myriad linguistic offspring and in some of our best loved works of literature, including Dante’s Inferno and the Rig Veda, The Lord of the Rings and the love poetry of Rumi. How did this happen?
Acclaimed journalist Laura Spinney set out to answer that question, retracing the Indo-European odyssey across continents and millennia. With her we travel the length of the steppe, navigating the Caucasus, the silk roads and the Hindu Kush. We retrace the epic journeys of nomads and monks, warriors and kings – the ancient peoples who carried these languages far and wide. In the present, Spinney meets the scientists on a thrilling mission to retrieve the lost languages and their speakers: the linguists, archaeologists and geneticists who have reconstructed that ancient diaspora. What they have learned has profound implications for our modern world, because people and their languages are on the move again. Proto is a revelatory portrait of world history in its own words.
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'Formidably researched but lightly written, I put down this book with the pleasurable sense that the world around me had become a little stranger and richer.' (Helen Gordon)
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'This beautifully researched and written book is about far more than language; it is a history of the world in microcosm, drawing together a diversity of subjects from genetics and religion to warfare and boozing. I highly recommend this wholly absorbing book.' (Douglas Preston)
'Spinney charts an extraordinary journey through human history with words as a compass. It is a sweeping story beautifully told. Profound and illuminating.5' (Moudhy Al-Rashid)
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Story
This audiobook narrated by acclaimed archaeologist and best-selling author Eric Cline offers a breathtaking account of how the collapse of an ancient civilized world ushered in the first Dark Ages.
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Look past the one-star reviews: this is an enlightening and engaging read.
- By Alonzo Nightjar on 03-07-22
By: Eric H. Cline
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Ancient Bones
- Unearthing the Astonishing New Story of How We Became Human
- By: Madelaine Böhme
- Narrated by: Aimée Ayotte
- Length: 7 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Africa has long been considered the cradle of life - where life and humans evolved - but somewhere west of Munich, Germany, paleoclimatologist and paleontologist Madelaine Böhme and her team make a discovery that is beyond anything they ever imagined: the 12-million-year-old bones of an ancient ape - Danuvius guggenmos - which makes headlines around the world and defies prevailing theories of human history and where human life began.
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Brave Attempt
- By Bill Treat on 10-15-22
By: Madelaine Böhme
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In Defense of Partisanship
- By: Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Partisanship is a dirty word in American politics. If there is one issue on which almost everyone in our divided country seems to agree, it’s the belief that the intense loyalty within the electorate toward Democrats and Republicans is the source of our democratic ills—division, dysfunction, distrust, and disinformation. The possibilities that responsible partisanship can offer were at the heart of an important intellectual tradition that flourished in the 1950s and 1960s, one which was institutionalized through a sweeping set of congressional reforms in the 1970s and 1980s.
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Prehistory
- Making of the Human Mind
- By: Colin Renfrew
- Narrated by: Robert Ian MacKenzie
- Length: 9 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A giant of archaeology, Colin Renfrew has immeasurably improved our understanding of human history. In this passionately argued work, he offers a concise summary of prehistory - human existence that predates the development of written records - while challenging the very definition of prehistory itself.
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not for the intellectually challenged
- By Anthony on 07-14-10
By: Colin Renfrew
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So Very Small
- How Humans Discovered the Microcosmos, Defeated Germs–and May Still Lose the War Against Infectious Disease
- By: Thomas Levenson
- Narrated by: Mike Cooper
- Length: 10 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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“An elegant, wide-ranging history” (The New York Review of Books) of the centuries-long quest to discover the critical role of germs in disease that reveals as much about human reasoning—and the pitfalls of ego—as it does about microbes.
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Great read!
- By Dr. B on 06-17-25
By: Thomas Levenson
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Fallen Glory
- The Lives and Deaths of History's Greatest Buildings
- By: James Crawford
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 20 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Buildings are more like us than we realize. They can be born into wealth or poverty, enjoying every privilege or struggling to make ends meet. They have parents - gods, kings and emperors, governments, visionaries and madmen - as well as friends and enemies. They have duties and responsibilities. They can endure crises of faith and purpose. They can succeed or fail. They can live. And, sooner or later, they die.
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A sprint through history
- By Mary on 03-19-19
By: James Crawford
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The Golden Road
- How Ancient India Transformed the World
- By: William Dalrymple
- Narrated by: William Dalrymple
- Length: 13 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Golden Road, revered historian William Dalrymple corrects the record, telling the captivating story of ancient India’s ascent through a swift and breathtaking tour of the ideas and places Indians created. Treks into the sunless depths of cave monasteries illuminate the origins and spread of Buddhism. Far-flung archaeological expeditions—from the sand-blown Red Sea coast of Egypt, to Afghan mountain refuges, to verdant Cambodian jungles—reveal the impact of Indian commerce.
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Completely unknown until now
- By Reader on 05-07-25
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536 AD
- The Worst Year to Be Alive in the History of Humankind
- By: Kamal Khalaf
- Narrated by: Zack Zimbler
- Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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In 536 AD, the sun dimmed, the sky turned a ghostly gray, and global temperatures plummeted. Crops withered, famine spread like wildfire, and entire civilizations were thrown into chaos. Historians and scientists now recognize this year as one of the most catastrophic climate events in human history—a volcanic winter that reshaped the world.
By: Kamal Khalaf
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Peak Human
- What We Can Learn from History’s Greatest Civilizations
- By: Johan Norberg
- Narrated by: Andrew Cullum
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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All golden ages are marked by periods of spectacular cultural flourishing, scientific exploration, technological achievement and economic growth; yet no two are the same. Their beliefs, societies and place in the wider world all vary. Despite this, all previous golden ages have ended, whether it be because of external pressures or internal fracturing; too much hubris or too little wariness.
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The consist threads that knit the central theme.
- By C. D. on 06-11-25
By: Johan Norberg
My one big complaint is the lack of an accompanying PDF.
Excellent survey of the topic, needs accompanying PDF.
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interesting combo.of DNA, archeology, linguistics
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Attention All Language and History Nerds!
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I have four hearts, and as a speaker of Indo-European languages, I often marvel at little unexpected similarities between seemingly unrelated languages. For example: How did “Haber” make its way into Spanish? Is it from the Visigoths? This book helped take my musings back even further in time, and I appreciate that.
I recommend this book for fans of history, archaeology, European travel, and mythology, But you might want to keep an online map open along the way.
Very Interesting
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fascinating material
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Brilliant research and narration
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